Philanthropy

Form Should Follow Function

Helping donors choose the options that meet their values regarding change, costs, tax, and family benefits is as important to the philanthropic markets as is providing good advice about nonprofits to support.

Given that giving in the US alone adds up to hundreds of billions of dollars per year, you’d think we’d have some better marketing and shopping tools.

Imagine you’ve moved to a new city. You need to figure out how to get around - should it be by bike, walking, public transit, car share, or do you really need to buy a car, pay for parking, insurance, and a garage? If you take this question to a car dealer, they will nudge you toward choosing between 2 door and 4 door model cars; they have no interest in selling you any of the other choices. They’re not going to solve your transportation problem, they are going to solve your car problem.

Same thing applies for donors. Imagine you’ve got some money to give away. You’ve made small gifts direct to nonprofits in the past, but now its bigger than that. You need to figure out what you want to support, whether to use time and money, what to do about taxes, and how much giving away money will wind up costing you. If you go to your attorney, he or she is likely to “sell” you a private foundation, because, lo and behold, that’s what attorneys sell. If you ask your investment adviser, they’ll suggest whatever product option best allows their firm to continue managing your assets. Your favorite nonprofit, your alma mater, local community foundation, mutual fund company, bank - same thing - they’ll help you choose among their products, but they may not solve your giving problem.

This is a key issue for philanthropic capital markets. Many donors know a lot about how they think change happens, what I call “change strategies.” What they may not know is how those strategies are facilitated or hindered by certain giving vehicles.

In this conversation over at SSIR about advocacy, a small comment shows how important this can be. In the discussion of foundations and advocacy, one person noted:
“Our founders (Steve and Michele Kirsch) created us as a supporting foundation of the Silicon Valley Community Foundation for the exact reason that they wanted us to be able to do policy work and lobbying.”

Donors know how they think change happens - and should be asked about it - before they endow a foundation, fund a supporting organization, or purchase a donor advised fund. Because certain elements of those change strategies, such as lobbying, using endowment assets as part of the mission work, spending principal, engaging multiple generations, or being as anonymous as possible lend themselves better to some giving vehicles than others.

Those who buy these products (and, yes, all of the above options - foundations, donor advised funds, supporting organizations - are products) often don’t get all the information they need to match their product choices to their “change strategies.” Helping donors choose the right options - the ones that meet their values regarding change, costs, tax, and family benefits - is as important to rationalizing the philanthropic markets as is providing good advice about nonprofits to support.

Lucy Bernholz is the Founder and President of Blueprint Research & Design, Inc, a strategy consulting firm that helps philanthropic individuals and institutions achieve their missions. She is the publisher of Philanthropy2173, an award winning blog about the business of giving and serves as Executive Producer of The Giving Channel on Fora.tv.

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